Mark of the Heretic
by The-Incubus
Summary: The Springtime summoning ritual has been completed by all of the students except for one. Louise must successfully summon a familiar or be expelled from the Tristain academy of magic. Though she is full of hope for a familiar of any kind there is a saying that many of those who are unfortunate say. "Life is full of disappointment, you just need to make the best out of it." One-Shot


Disclaimer: I do not own Familiar of Zero

Authors note: Any advice would be appreciated and thank you for reading this story.

**Bold **first words mean a scene change or a passage of time.

Mark of the Heretic

**She** had failed. She had failed! The one time where she could have redeemed herself and showed the world that Louise Francoise Le Blanc De La Valliere was not a Zero. That she was not a commoner placed within borrowed robes. That she was not forsaken by Brimir. That she was a noble!

_I failed..._

Nothing had happened. _Nothing! _Not a puff, not a spark, not even an explosion. She would have been fine with anything! Anything to be her familiar! Be it a mouse, a rat, by the founder she would have been okay with a spider!

_I failed..._

She could hear the laughing around her. They chortled and giggled at her greatest failure yet. Not even when she had blown up the professor in her final exam last year had been this much of a failure. She could hear that cow Kirche gloating at her now about the declaration that she had made earlier in the day about how she would obtain an amazing familiar. What an idiot she had been at that moment to let her temper get the best of her. Now that cow would have more things to tease her about than she already did which was considerable since any professor always seemed to call upon her to demonstrate a spell. Then she would spend the rest of the day cleaning up after the explosion left behind.

_Except that I am going to be expelled…_

The one thought that came to Louise made her heart go cold. She was going to be expelled from the school. No written portion to make up for her lack of ability. No major assignment to ace by such a large margin that it would boost her teetering grade a good five percent. Nothing. She would return to her family as a disgrace. A splotch upon the honour of she family. She would become a pawn in the nobles game of politics and marriage power plays that were common within Tristan. That though was for a best case scenario. Worst case would be that she would be excommunicated from her family and left as a poor commoner in the streets. Without the skills nor the knowledge to survive very long. She wouldn't even have magic to keep her alive like most disgraced nobles had to start out until they learned the ropes. She would just be a stupid useless common as dirt commoner.

"Ha! Look at Louise! She isn't even a Zero anymore! She is just a commoner!" a boy in the crowd shouted that Louise for the life of her couldn't remember the name of at the moment.

"Do you think she will have to start working at the school? I would love to have a Valliere working for me," sneered another girl from her class with a smirk.

"As if she would be allowed to work here. She will probably be married off to a Germanian barbarian!" Declared another laughing at the thought. The insults from the crowd kept coming as the despair that Louise was feeling started dragging her down with it as she started to reach her breaking point.

"Failure."

"Commoner."

"Zero."

At that point she fled. She fled the courtyard where the spring time summoning ceremony was occurring. She fled from the sneers and laughing of the crowd. She fled from Mr Colbert who politely called for her to stay. She fled from her failure, with tears in her eyes. Down the hall Louise ran in the great castle that served as the Magic Academy for nobles around the world. Passing maids, butlers, and students alike uncaring about them as she fled to the safe haven of her room. She felt that the end of days was upon her as she cried. She cried for her failure to summon a familiar as everyone else in her class had done before her. She cried for the uncertainty of her fate waiting to be realized. Then finally she cried about how disappointed her family would be.

**Within** the confines of her dream Louise walked. She followed the path that the dream had set out for her to follow. Through the purgatory of the dream where she relived events in her past whether they were for better or for worse. She re-enacted her fifth birthday when she had obtained her first pony to ride around the grounds and take care of. Then as if in a flash she began going through the motions of when she had first truly disappointed her mother. The next memory was when she had nearly drowned once because of the carriage that her and her family were riding in fell into the river and where she was saved by her sister. She relived her memories in jumps skips and hops. Moving from one to another with little delay between scenes. All the while a sinister presence was felt in the memories but outside of them. Watching her. Observing her as she acted out scene after scene of some of the most important moments of her life. Finally it ended with the most recent event of her failure at summoning a familiar.

"My, my, what a life that you have lived…" a voice spoke out from behind Louise as she collected her bearings. Around her a deep red mist had formed with flashes occurring every so often in areas shrouded by the oppressive mist. The only other colour other than the bright flashes was that of a cold grey cobbled stone path where she stood. When Louise turned around she was faced with a black silhouette. The silhouette had what appeared to be a cloak as well as horns on the top of it's head. The only other feature was that of it's glowing pure violet eyes.

"All to be torn down in front of your very eyes because Brimir has denied you." The silhouette's voice was like silk on skin, like an angel's voice, or a politician's speech.

"For all of your life since coming to the Academy you have wished to show your peers that you can cast a spell, that you have power, and that you are not a disgrace. All for nought because the Founder decided that you specifically should not have magic like the rest of the nobles. That you would be a splotch on the honour of your family." Even in her dreams she would be mocked, insulted, and reminded of her failure.

_Maybe it would be for the best, maybe I should just… _Louise never got to finish her thought as the silhouette spoke again.

"I could give you the magic you so desire. The power to show your classmates that you are not a zero."

"Not to be a disgrace... You would like that… wouldn't you?" Louise's eyes widen. The chance not to be a disgrace to her family would be a dream come true. Even if only in the dream it would be marvellous.

"Yes oh please yes!" Louise started but she was interrupted by the silhouette raising it's hand and lighting arcing out of it into her form.

"Then have your power!" it shouted. Louise though felt nothing. The lightning entered her but she felt no pain or warmth. She felt nothing. She looked down to her hand seeing a upside down pentagram with a upside down cross in the middle followed by symbols being inscribed into her flesh around the pentagram. But she felt nothing.

_So it is but a dream…_

**Louise **woke in the middle of the night on her bed. She still had her academy uniform on and her hair was a pink rats nest. Groaning Louise walked to the window. It was a full moon out that night giving light to the night dwellers across the land. Tomorrow Louise would be expelled from the academy and sent back to her family who would be disappointed of her failure then cast her out. She was sure of it. Tears started to well up in her eyes again at the thought and started to spill over even as she tried to suppress them. As she went to wipe her tears of sorrow away she then noticed something on her hand. As she pulled her hand away form her face. She saw it.

The mark.


End file.
